WILLIAMSBURG — Scholar-led traditional rock cowl band Midnight Metal, that includes Williamsburg’s Matthew Stumpf on bass, was just lately named the Finest Band in Tuscaloosa 2022 after profitable the first-ever Battle of the Bands on the College of Alabama.
Stumpf moved to Williamsburg when he was a junior in highschool. His love of music started with taking part in the flute in center college and highschool. He additionally performed in The Fifes and Drums of York City earlier than graduating from Jamestown Excessive College and happening to pursue a level on the College of Alabama.
“In Jamestown, I used to be within the band there. Not marching band, simply the conventional live performance band, and performed flute. I made it into the all-state Virginia band for flute my senior yr,, which was actually enjoyable,” Stumpf mentioned. “It was a extremely cool musical expertise for me, which impressed me to maintain taking part in.”
Initially, Stumpf had attended college with the intent of pursuing his finance diploma, nonetheless, he quickly discovered he missed music and added a music minor to his diploma. On the similar time, he roomed with a number of different college students who would finally change into members of Midnight Metal.
At first, when the group was extra informal — simply Stumpf and the guitarists — he performed the flute. He dabbled with electrical guitar with the assistance of among the members of the band, however hadn’t gotten very far alongside in working towards it, and hadn’t picked up the bass guitar.
“As soon as we started speaking about beginning a band, we knew we might have the lead guitar and rhythm guitar, so we would have liked a bass guitarist so I began studying straight away for that,” Stumpf admitted. “Our first gig was about two weeks after that. So I type of simply kicked it into extra time, studying bass guitar for the band.”
Together with the title, the band received a $2,000 money prize. The band’s future plan is to increase and take issues so far as they will — trying to get gigs as often as a few times per week. The group can also be at the moment engaged on releasing an album, which was introduced throughout the group’s win on the battle of the bands, and hopes to launch the songs on streaming platforms along with performing them reside.
